CPS Rehired Them. Now About 280 Jobs Could Be Cut in December.

Chicago Public Schools could lay off about 280 employees who were rehired for the 2026-27 school year if additional state funding does not arrive. Teachers and support staff could face another round of December 2026 cuts while the district seeks money its budget already assumes it will receive.

A Nov. 13, 2026 report from the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ identifies 128 teachers and 153 support staff whose restored positions cost $29 million. The potential layoffs would reverse part of the effort to bring staff back after earlier cuts.

The funding risk dates to a July 30, 2026 budget amendment. As CPS explains in its official budget materials, the school board added $150 million in expected state revenue and operating expenses, raising the approved budget from $9.96 billion to $10.11 billion.

That amendment assumed an additional $100 million through the state’s Evidence-Based Funding program and $50 million in mandated categorical funding. Approving those amounts in a district budget did not secure a new state appropriation.

Other costs have since increased the pressure. The Sun-Times and WBEZ report that special education spending has exceeded its budget and emergency contingency by $27 million, while borrowing costs rose and state funding came in $19 million below expectations.

CPS told the reporters its finance team is tracking the rising costs and identifying possible savings. The district has not explained how it would cover all of those additional pressures.

The Chicago Teachers Union’s July 30, 2026 response credited organizing for the board’s decision to seek more state money and resist classroom cuts. The union argued that the state’s own school-funding formula supported a larger investment in CPS.

CTU again opposed layoffs in a Nov. 13, 2026 message to members, according to the report. District leaders and workers from CPS unions plan to lobby lawmakers during the veto session beginning Nov. 17, 2026.

State funding is one of several assumptions supporting the spending plan. CPS also budgeted $285 million in surplus revenue from the city’s tax-increment financing districts and warns that missing some or all of the assumed revenue could require midyear reductions.

For the rehired staff, the remaining question is whether that expected revenue becomes available in time to sustain their positions through the school year.

Former Chicago Public Schools headquarters at 125 South Clark Street in Chicago, photographed in 2009. Photo: David K. Staub / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.